The Importance of Instructional Design; Mayer’s Multimedia Principles Applied

Abstract

The digitalization of society also affects schools in the Netherlands. The implementation of internet in high schools results in the development where books are replaced by laptops and instructional methods are replaced by online instructional methods. The most widely used instructional method in the Netherlands is All Right!, which is why their online assignments are analyzed in order to determine whether they result in deeper learning. In the Netherlands, students in transition classes are regularly the first students who have to get rid of their workbooks and make room for a laptop, which is why Mayer’s (2005) Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning is used to see how effective the multimedia assignments are for seventh graders. The effectiveness of an instructional method can be researched through an analysis of the design of the instructional method. The instructional design should be in accord with Mayer’s multimedia principles, based on theories on how the human brain works. The analysis showed that a rather low percentage of the online assignments of All Right! for seventh graders were designed in accord with Mayer’s multimedia principles.